Tuesday, 15 March 2011

Eat Your Greens

As St Patrick's Day is impending, I thought something green would be a good idea! And as I'm sure you're all sick of being told where to drink proper stout, or even crappy mass-produced freezing cold nitrogenated rubbish, I thought I'd go a different route.﻿﻿﻿﻿

There was further inspiration from a recipe of Nigel Slater's I saw not so long ago combined with a conversation with my mum about chorizo the other day.

Phew! So many muses, so little time!

Anyway, this requires a little bit of wheat beer, I'm thinking more along the lines of a German Kristall or Belgian rather than a Hefeweizen, I think the latter would be too much, and I've made some suggestions below anyway.

This is very obviously not a complicated dish, and you can vary it with the seasons, maybe substitute the kale for asparagus and cook the dish with a saison a bit later in the year, or use Jerusalem artichokes and a a mild when they are in season, use Tolouse sausage, savoy cabbage (which is very similar to the French chou vert frisé) and a biere de garde for a twist.

It's a one-pan dish so washing-up is kept to a minimum and I'm pretty sure I don't need to advise you what to do with the rest of the beer that doesn't go into the cooking process - cheers!

Heat pan (with a lid for later) until just beginning to smoke, add splash of olive oil wait a few seconds for that to heat up then add chorizo, turn down to medium heat, cook for two-three minutes.

Add potato slices and sprinkle a little black pepper over top, leave slices alone, do not turn until they've gone golden brown on bottom - wash your kale even if it says pre-washed! It never is properly!

About Me

Award-winning beer writer and author of Let Me Tell You About Beer Melissa Cole is living the dream. Not only does she write extensively about the world's favourite drink, she also works with chefs to create beer and food extravaganzas in venues as diverse as Michelin-starred restaurants to local pubs, and is invited to judge at beer competitions from London to Brussels and Amsterdam to America.
Her reputation for having a fine palate and fun approach to all things brewed, also translates to actually making beer, and some of her collaborative beers have gone on to become huge successes for the breweries Melissa made them with, never profiting herself.
Melissa is also a Certified Cicerone & was also identified as one of the Most Powerful Women in the Drinks Industry by Channel4 Food and won the acclaim of her industry peers when named Educator of the Year by Imbibe magazine in 2013.